Currently building up a five frame. I’ve managed to wrestle the reverb stealth hose through, and patiently poked the gear cable through the eye of a needle. Rear brake up next, any tips please, disconnect at lever or caliper? Would assume lever, but this means a much more difficult threading direction…….

Edit: brakes are Shimano XT m8000

Usually far easier to feed from front to back, but not really possible with the non-removable banjo of XT. If you’ve got any spare hose, push it through from the front, and use the red connector from the reverb to pull it through with.

Along the top of the swingarm.

Bloody hate internal routing

I used an old fashioned wire coat hanger, unraveled, as a guide, then pull the hose through with it.

Not a fan of internal routing, it’s just such a faff and makes maintenance that much more difficult

Coatsey – that was the best thing I could come up with, currently have an old bit of hose threaded ready to try when I get round to the brakes.

Legend – if the routing is there I’ll be damned if I’m going to ruin the aesthetics of my filing cabinet with excess cable ties!

It might have changed but on my 224 it wasn’t that hard- put it in at the front end, poke it down, pull it through the hole at the other end with needle nose pliars.

But maybe worth mentioning that if you put it down the outside, it also quietens things down a lot- the cable rattling inside the swingarm is one of the (many) things that makes an Orange sound like a cutlery drawer.

Use a vacuum cleaner to pull a cotton thread through the swingarm, tie cotton at front of the swingarm to a gear cable and pull through swingarm, slot open end of brake hose (lever end) over gear able and work through to front of swingarm. Remove gear cable and bleed. Voila!

Northwind – Member

It might have changed but on my 224 it wasn’t that hard- put it in at the front end, poke it down, pull it through the hole at the other end with needle nose pliars.

Depending on the brake involved that way just isn’t possible sometimes as you need to go from the rear. It also varies in ease even with the same model of bike! I’ve done it to 3 Fives, the Mrs’ old one was a HUGE ball-ache to do as the weld area at the front end seemed to encroach a lot more than normal. Hours of fun playing with that one!

I’ve found the best technique is to use a gear cable to guide it through. If you’re removing a brake it threads inside the hydraulic hose perfectly, pull it through and it’s ready to go the other way. If there’s nothing in there currently the thickness of the gear cable makes it easy to thread it through by feel, easier still if you hold the swingarm vertically. If that’s troublesome do the cotton/hoover trick leotardo mentions above.

I find getting the hose through the grommet and sitting right in the front of the swingarm more annoying!

Thanks all. Being able to go in at the shock end of the swing arm would definitely be easiest, but the banjo is fixed the the brake hose caliper end so my only option is to go the other way.

I managed to get an old bit of hose threaded through easily (much easier than the reverb or gear cable outer), with the plan being to then (as described by coatsey) to use the red connector for a reverb install to do the same job with the brake hose. In theory this should work, I guess I’ll find out over the weekend!